


Another Angel

by melanie1982



Category: Aaliyah - Fandom, DMX - Fandom, Damon Dash, Missy Elliot - Fandom
Genre: Deaths, Grief, Other, Plane Crash, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 15:04:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8253401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melanie1982/pseuds/melanie1982
Summary: Aaliyah's death really unsettled me, more so than a lot of 'celebrity' deaths. I'm not sure why; I wasn't a die-hard fan. It just.. I can't put it into words.This came to me randomly, a multi p.o.v fic about her life - and her death.I don't know what happens when we die. I don't know the state of her soul. This is fiction.I don't know any of the people in this story. I make no money from this work of fiction.The opening quotation has been attributed to Aaliyah in real life, weeks before her death.Depictions of death; you've been warned.





	1. DMX Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> X remembers

"Someone's following me and I don't know why. I'm scared. Then suddenly I lift off. Far away. As if I'm swimming in the air. Nobody can reach me. Nobody can touch me. It's a wonderful feeling."

(DMX p.o.v)

Her words.

Those words haunt me. Everything about baby girl haunts me: her voice, reaching into me with a gentleness, then holding on with a fierce intensity. Her face, so innocent, and yet so wise, so.. knowing. She saw through me. I put on this pit-bull front, but she saw me for the pup I am. When I used to try to tell her I'm a thug, she'd just smile. 

The first few days are a blur, but I remember being woken up by a phone call. I remember hearing the voice of one of my oldest friends.

"Ay yo, you up?"

"I am now. What's good?"

Silence. Someone in the background was sobbing; my heart stopped. "Look, just.. don't turn on the tv today, okay?"

Sitting up, wide awake now. "What's goin' down? We in World War III?"

"Nah, man.. Just.." Someone else tried to take the phone, my friend arguing with them. 

"Quit playin.' What's the word?" I waited. Finally, he spoke.

"Aaliyah's plane crashed."

Me, searching for my jeans, my shoes, my keys. "Which hospit - "

"She's gone, man."

Me, collapsing to the floor, one leg in my jeans, the other feeling the chill in the room. "Gone? 'The fuck you mean, GONE?"

"She's gone, X. I'm sorry. I didn't want you to see it all over the tv. I.."

I remember knowing I needed a drink, and then another. The phone rang all day; the tv told me, over and over, the last thing I had ever wanted to hear. It was worse than my worst nightmare. I have dreams that I get shot, dreams that I go broke, dreams that I'm locked up - but I can handle those nightmares, because I deserve them, and because they seem possible. This was worse, because I had never seen it coming.

Aaliyah said she dreamt of flying free. Had she seen it coming?

The worst part wasn't that we'd had a fight or ignored each other; neither of those is true. The worst part is I never told her how I felt. It took her dying for me to see it, and by then it was too late.

Maybe she knew. Maybe it's why she's still in my dreams, fifteen years later.

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	2. Missy Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missy remembers

I watched her grow. She was unstoppable; I knew she would go far, because she kept it real, and she stayed away from the underbelly of the biz, you feel me?

She was a flower, just beginning to open.

When the news hit, I had to keep goin', one foot in front of the other. She wouldn't have wanted me to stop; Aaliyah would've told me to keep living, keep building dreams. 

So I did - but so much of the beauty had gone out of my world. 

There's a lot of songs that make me think of her, but one that I turned to over and over in those months was off her movie soundtrack to Romeo Must Die: Joe's "Rose in a Concrete World." It just captured that balance, that line she walked between her innocence and her street, you know?

I had that song on repeat for a long trip up to cooler climes. I wanted to be away for the New Year, to distance myself from the pain. I shoulda known baby girl wouldn't let me feel alone, hiding in some cave to cry.

We pulled up to the cabin as the day ended. I took a walk around outside, just to make sure it was all good, no crazies hidin' in the bushes or some shit, and that's when I saw it.

"No fuckin' way," I said. My security dude, six foot whatever, stepped up behind me, nervous. 

"Whatchu see, Missy?"

I pointed at the form. The bush was covered in snow, but there in the center was a rose. It was blood-red, open, and perfect. 

"There is no way.." I felt like I was on holy ground. Dude fell silent, a smart move. The rose should've been closing for the night; nah, forget that - it should've been DEAD. 

What kind of shit is that? A red rose in December, surrounded by snow? A picture could never hold that moment, could never do it justice.

I knew she was lettin' me know, you know, ride or die, I'm by your side. I knew.

She would bloom again.

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	3. Damon Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damon remembers

I'm a bad boy, aight? I admit it. There's been girls in my life.. too many, too fast, too careless. But when I met her, everything just - stopped. I knew. She was different; she was..

I don't got words for it.

I shoulda been with her that day. Ain't no way we'd have gotten on that plane if I was there. She was hurrying back for me. 

In the quiet moments between sleep and wake, I turn our last conversation over in my mind, wonderin' what I should've said better, or what I didn't say.

She was so happy. She was on top of the world. But there was a doubt there, whispering to her. Maybe I talked over it. Maybe she chose to tune it out. I don't know. 

I like to think she's laughin' her ass off about making number 1 on the charts. She should've been there anyway. Baby girl earned it.

No matter who I get with, no matter what success I attain, that feelin' of .. *sighs* 

I miss her every day. Every. Day.


	4. Aaliyah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaliyah's p.o.v

I knew. On some level, I did.

It's just.. We were all buzzing but tired, like, slap-happy. Bahamas, paradise, right? But it wasn't family. It wasn't home.

All those flights, and I was always fine. My people wouldn't let me go if it wasn't safe.

We had trouble at take-off, and people on board started telling the pilot to go back, to forget it. Scott started to raise his voice; he could see I was scared. He was my protector to the end.

I heard a bang, and then we were falling. My dream of flying came back to me, and I prayed it was a sign that we'd make it - but then I heard my mouth moving along to the words of my childhood: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.."

I didn't scream. I didn't have the breath for it.

One minute I was afraid, and then, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, all fear was wiped away. I hit my head on something, and I just.. stopped.

Only, it didn't stop. It kept going, just in a different way.

I was above it all, the heat, the pain, the noise. I heard Scott asking them, over and over, to check on me, still worried about me with his last breaths. Then he was beside me, staring, confused.

"It's okay," I told him. Smiling. It was. It *was* okay. Why had I ever been afraid? 

He finally smiled back. "Guess I'm fired, huh?"

I laughed. I could still laugh. I shook my head. The others were there, too, looking to me like I was still 'the boss.' "Never. Let's go."

My dream came true. I was swimming in the air. Nobody could touch me. Nothing would ever hurt me.

I met the family I'd lost, the friends who'd gone before me. I met fans. Then there were the kids.

A few of them said they were the ones I would've had. Mostly, though, they were just kids who wanted to sing.

I'm spending eternity doing what I love.

I know why people cry. They miss me; I get it. But I got to do my dream job. I got to see the world. I got to experience love in so many forms.

I'm happy. I get to see Egypt from here. I get to sing, forever and ever. 

And I fly free.


End file.
